Fu Manchu @ The Cathouse, 3 Mar

Embarking upon a 15th anniversary tour to celebrate their seminal In Search Of album, the veteran Californian quartet loosen up with a few crowd-pleasers – Mongoose in particular is a cowbell-thumping treat – before playing their classic LP in its entirety. Fu Manchu have always eschewed emotion and meaning in favour of an almost abstract pursuit of pure dynamic energy; as a band they live and die by the sound they summon from their instruments – and tonight they sound huge.

They pace their set expertly to peak with The Falcon Has Landed – one of the record's weaker moments but tonight a revelation; the dumb repetition of its monolithic riff playing out like a paean to the majesty of amplified electrical current. The encore of Lazerbl'ast! and King of the Road just about brings the house down and the band bow out with the energised crowd baying for more. [Mark Shukla]